In modern terms, Central Asia
comprises of five republics, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
and Kyrgyzstan. It is bordered by the Caspian Sea to the west, China to
the east, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to the south, and Russia to the
north. Sometimes the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang and Afghanistan are
included in definitions of Central Asia, but their inclusion fails to take into
account the shared history and culture of the five republics. This region is
historically connected to the nomadic people who lived and thrived in the area
where goods and people crisscrossed across EurasiaHowever, today little is
known or understood about this unique region of the world for a number of
reasons including the demise of the Silk Road and the waxing and waning of
their connection to Islam.

Geographically these republics can be divided into three
zones. The oasis belt, sometimes called Transoxiana, mainly in Uzbekistan, but
also encompassing areas of all the other states; the steppe-desert zone in
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan; and the high mountain zone in the southeast of
Tajikistan. Islam entered these three regions at different times and in
different waysThe ethnic heritage of the three areas was diverse, and it
influenced the way they responded to Islam.

At the time of Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and
blessings of God be upon him, around 600 CE, the population of the oasis belt
were of Iranian and Turkic origin. The well-traveled Silk Road meant that there
were flourishing urban areas such as Merv, Samarkand, and Bukhara. Several
different religions thrived there, including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and
Manichaeism. Other religions in smaller numbers included Nestorian Christians
and Jews, and in the area now known as Turkmenistan, there were Hellenistic cults.

The area was no stranger to new religions, and Islam
entered Central Asia in the 8th century CE as part of the Muslim
expansion and conquest of the region. In 651–652 CE, Muslims conquered the area
known as Khorasan, a vast territory that now spans north-eastern Iran, southern
Turkmenistan, and northern Afghanistan. The Muslims retained the name Khorasan,
and in 705 CE Qutaybah ibn Muslim, the Abbasid governor, established his
principal seat at Merv from where he repeatedly undertook campaigns into the
Ferghana Valley

The Battle of Talas, near the border of present-day
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan took place in July 751 CE between the Abbasid
Caliphate and the Tibetan Empire, against the Chinese Tang dynasty. This encounter
resulted in Muslim control over the area for the next 400 years. After the
Karluks, a Turkish tribal confederacy originally fighting with the Tang
dynasty, defected to the Abbasids, the balance of power was tipped in the
Muslim’s favor. Thus, by the beginning of the 9th century CE, the
oasis belt had been completely integrated into the Muslim world, and Caliph Ma’mun
made Merv, rather than Baghdad, his capital from 813 to 817 CE.

The cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Urgench, located
still in what is now known as Uzbekistan, and Merv, an oasis city that no
longer exists but was located near the city of Mary in Turkmenistan, flourished
as centres of Islamic learning, culture, and art until the Mongol invasion of
the 13th Century CE. Scholars from Central Asia traveled throughout
the Muslim world and made significant contributions to medicine and science,
and Islamic jurisprudence and studies. Many are still known and respected
today. They include the astronomer al-Farghani, the notable mathematician al-Khwarizmi
(latinized to Algorithmi), and Ibn Sina (Avicenna)Ibn Sina is regarded as a
most significant physician, astronomer, thinker, and writer, and the father of
modern medicine Also, from Central Asia were hadith collectors, Imam Bukhari,
who compiled the most well-known book of hadith, and Imam Tirmidhi, whose
family was from the city of Merv.

In the 12th and 13th centuries CE,
Merv became one of the largest cities of the world, with a population of up to
500,000 people. However, in 1221 the Mongol horde swept into the city totally
destroying it. Historical accounts suggest that the entire population of one
million people, including refugees seeking protection, were killed. When
Genghis Khan died six years later, he left an empire that extended from
northeast China to the Caspian Sea measuring 28 million square kilometers.
While Merv never fully recovered, Islam not only survived the savage conquest
but recovered and spread throughout the empire.

The first Mongol Khan to embrace is Islam was Baraka
(Berke) Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. He is said to have met a caravan
coming from Bukhara, question the travelers about their religion and
subsequently accept Islam. From there Islam spread once again claiming the
territory previously lost to the Mongol hordes. His descendant Tamerlane
consolidated Islam in the area. Those who had tried to destroy Islam, through
the grace of God, became its protectors.

However, by the 16th century CE, Central Asia
was becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the Muslim world. Although
the area had no distinct borders, it contained several main routes of the Silk
Road, allowing the transfer of good and ideas. However, when alternate trade
routes were established, including faster sea routes between India, China, and
Europe, the region became unstable; many clan-based tribes rose and fell across
the region until the 19th Century CE.

The Russian Tsarist Empire turned its attention to
Central Asia in the 17th century CE, and in the 19th
century CE, London and St. Petersburg hustled each other over Central Asia in
what was known as the Great Game. Russian expansion continued until the last
independent Uzbek regions were annexed or became protectorates in the 1870s.
What is now Northern Kazakhstan was the first area brought under Russian
control, and by the middle of the century, the Russians were poised to take
control of the oasis belt; there the subjugation was completed within a decade.

In the steppe region, Tsarist Russia showed support and
goodwill towards Islam and Muslims. They allocated funds for printing Muslim
literature and building mosques. The nomads of the steppes had previously
possessed few mosques. The Muslims from the oasis belt were encouraged to train
and instruct the nomads in more orthodox Islam. The Kazakh nomads perceived
this ‘new’ form of Islam to be narrowly dogmatic and unfamiliar in Kazakh
traditional Islam that had been modified by local customs and beliefs. By the
mid-19th century CE, Tsarist policies were changing. They started
sending Christian missionaries into the steppe region, and in the oasis belt
measures were introduced to curb Islamic activities.

Following the Russian revolution of 1917–1922 CE,
Central Asia became part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and
was organized into the five republics we know today, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. Islam was not treated kindly by the
USSR despite an appeal to Russia’s Muslims in 1917 that promised, "…your
beliefs and usages, your national and cultural institutions are forever free
and inviolate."

In part 2 we will discuss the suppression of Islam and
its post-Soviet revival.

In December 1917
Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin signed an appeal to the "Muslims of Russia,
Tatars of the Volga and Crimea, Kyrgyz, and parts of Siberia and Turkestan,
Turks and Tatars of Trans-Caucasia, Chechen and Mountain peoples of the
Caucasus, and all of you whose mosques and prayer houses have been destroyed,
whose beliefs and customs have been trampled upon by the Tsars and oppressors
of Russia: (declaring that) your beliefs and usages, your national and
cultural institutions are forever free and inviolate. Know that your rights,
like those of all the peoples of Russia, are under the mighty protection of the
revolution."[1]

At the time of the Russian Revolution, many Muslim
reformers known as Jadids attempted to work within the Soviet system. Thus, in
parts of Central Asia, Muslims accounted for 70% of Communist Party membership,
and the Bolsheviks[2]
were determined to keep their support. Islamic books and objects looted by
the Russian Empire were returned, and the Quran of Uthman was ceremoniously returned
to the Muslim Congress. Friday was declared a legal day of rest in Central
Asia, and by 1921 a Sharia legal system was put in place to work beside the
Soviet legal system.[3]
However, although gaining the trust of the oppressed minorities in the Russian
Empire was essential to the Bolshevik cause, when all opposition was brought
under control, Lenin turned his attention to eradicating religion.

The Russian Revolution began by implementing strict
Marxist doctrine declaring that the state should be non-religious not
anti-religion. Believers who considered themselves revolutionaries were
welcomed into the Bolshevik ranks, however, religious tendencies began to grow
stronger rather than falling away. Attacks on religion, particularly Islam in
the Central Asia region, began under the banner of combatting crimes based on
custom. The Bolsheviks believed that the so-called liberation of women would
pave the way to socialism. One particular method used to sideline Islam was
mass unveiling.

The Hujum (storming or assault) campaign took place in
Uzbekistan (and Azerbaijan).[4]
It was marketed as a campaign to liberate Central Asian women encouraging and
then demanding that they unveil. On International Women’s Day (March 8th) in
1927, after two years of ineffective propaganda, the Hujum entered a new
phase. At mass meetings, women were called upon to unveil. In small groups
they were expected to come to podiums, declare their liberation, and throw
their veils off ceremoniously.

The Hujum was a failure. Although many women embraced
unveiling others protested, sometimes violently, that they were not oppressed
by the long horsehair veils that were the custom of the time and place. It has
been suggested that the Hujum was initiated not only for revolutionary
liberation but as a means of undermining Islamic clergy and religious
traditions. However, despite the USSR’s efforts to eliminate religion, they
did not succeed to any great extent until efforts were made to outlaw the
Arabic language. The deconstruction of language is often the first step in
destroying a culture. In 1930 Arabic was replaced with the Latin Alphabet, and
the Muslims were unable to read or connect with the Quran.

During World War Two restrictions on Islam were somewhat
relaxed because the Soviet government required the support of all its citizens
to fight what they called the Great Patriotic War. In 1943 the Spiritual
Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan (SADUM) was
established and charged with training clergy and publishing spiritual material
under the careful control of the government. As religious persecution
subsided, mosques began to reopen, and by 1949 there were 415 registered
mosques in the USSR. Through the 1940s and 50s, the Soviet authorities began
to view Islam as either good or bad. ‘Good’ Islam was compatible with
socialism. It was represented and controlled by state-appointed clergy and did
not require any beliefs or practices; rather it was framed as part of Central
Asia’s national heritage. ‘Bad’ Islam, on the other hand, held that there was
a higher authority than the Soviet State. It was framed as a trick used to
lead people away from the ideals of the USSR. It was considered to be a
dangerous social force and a threat to Soviet power. Islam did, however,
flourish underground, in tea houses, on collective farms, and in other
innocuous spaces. For the next thirty years, religious observance continued
and was widespread; it became a matter of national identity. Each Soviet put emphasis
on being populated by many nationalities all united under the banner of the
USSR. Islam was secondary to national identity; Central Asians were Muslims by
tradition, but were also part of the modern USSR.

A guide in Bukhara told National Geographic
in 1971, "I remember my mother and father speaking Arabic at home. But my
comrades of this generation find no need for Allah and His prophet. Visit a
mosque nowadays and you will see mostly the white-haired."

In the 1980s Islam took on a greater role in the lives
of the people in the five Central Asian republics. This was a result of
changes brought about by perestroika and glasnost.[5] The
Muslims dissatisfied with party control of the religious institutions demanded
more say in their religious lives. A religious revival by people eager for the
moral values no longer under attack in the USSR demanded expressions and
symbols of Islam in public life and public spaces. Thus, piety increased, and
Islamic publications came back into print including in the Arabic language.
Religious education became possible once again. During this time in
Tajikistan, more than 70% of Muslim students considered themselves to be
believers.[6]

On December 25th, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Using the words,
"We’re now living in a new world. " In the 1920s, the Soviet government had
imposed borders bringing the five nations into existence; thus, they had never
before been independent nations. However, when the USSR dissolved, they chose
to maintain the Soviet borders and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan joined the Muslim world as independent nation
states.

The Islamic revival in the Central Asian republics was,
and still is, supported by the Muslim world. Once their borders were opened,
delegations, missions, and organizations, particularly from Afghanistan,
Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, played a significant role in reviving Islam. They
funded mosques and schools, and supplied Qurans and other Islamic literature in
Arabic, Russian, and Central Asian languages.

All five states still use Soviet-style mechanisms of
dealing with Islam. Soviet legislation on religious affairs has been replaced
by new versions that unfortunately do not significantly alter the relationship
between state and religion. For instance, in Uzbekistan, a person can only
legally worship in mosques operated by the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan. Similar
legislation exists in Kazakhstan.

Since the fall of the USSR, Islam in Central Asia has
once again re-emerged. In 1912, there were about 26,000 mosques in Central
Asia. By 1949, there were just 415 mosques in the entire USSR. In 2004, there
were 2,500 mosques and dozens of religious schools throughout the Central Asian
states. The statistics tell a tale of a slow yet steady and upward revival.
When the Mongol hordes swept into Central Asia, Islam stood like a tree being
battered by the wind until it could arise once more. It waited patiently for
seventy years during the Soviet rule and then rose once again; strong and
silent, and strengthened by God.

[5]
Perestroika - The policy or practice of restructuring or reforming the economic
and political system. First proposed by Leonid Brezhnev in 1979 and actively
promoted by Mikhail Gorbachev. Glasnost - The policy or practice of more open
consultative government and wider dissemination of information.

[6]
Ro’i, Yaacov. "Nationalism in Central Asia in the Context of Glasnost and
Perestroika."

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